The Grand Ditch, also known as the Grand River Ditch and originally known as the North Grand River Ditch, is a

water diversion Interbasin transfer or transbasin diversion are (often hyphenated) terms used to describe man-made conveyance schemes which move water from one river basin where it is available, to another basin where water is less available or could be utilized ...

project in the Never Summer Mountains, in northern

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

in the United States. It is long, wide, and deep on average. Streams and creeks that flow from the highest peaks of the Never Summer Mountains are diverted into the ditch, which flows over the Continental Divide at

La Poudre Pass La Poudre Pass (elevation ), a high mountain pass, is located in the Rocky Mountains of northern Colorado in the United States. The pass straddles the Continental Divide, and separates the headwaters of La Poudre Pass Creek, which joins the C ...

at , delivering the water into Long Draw Reservoir and the

Cache La Poudre River The Cache la Poudre River ( ), also known as the Poudre River, is a river in the state of Colorado in the United States. Name The name of the river () is a corruption of the original Cache à la Poudre, or "cache of powder". It refers to an ...

for eastern plains farmers. The water would otherwise have gone into the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...

(formerly known as the "Grand River", from which the name of the ditch is derived) that flows west towards the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

; instead, the Cache La Poudre River goes East and through the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

discharges into the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...

. The ditch was started in 1890 and wasn't completed until 1936. The ditch diverts between 20 and 40% of the runoff from the Never Summer Mountains, and delivers an average of . It significantly impacts the ecology in the valley below and the

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propert ...

has fought in court to reduce the amount of diverted water.

History

Grand Ditch scar viewed from the Holzwarth Historic District July 2016

The Grand Ditch was built by the Larimer County Ditch Company, mostly by Japanese crews, working with hand tools and black powder. The first diverted water flowed east across La Poudre Pass on October 15, 1890. Water Supply and Storage Company took over ownership in 1891.''Water across the Divide'', in ''High Country News'', October 12, 2009, http://www.hcn.org/issues/41.17/water-across-the-divide The ditch was extended every year, and reached three miles in 1894. After the creation of Rocky Mountain National Park, increasing demand for water led to the creation of Long Draw Reservoir, and the required land was taken away from the park by Congress in 1923. Long Draw reservoir opened in 1930. The Grand Ditch was then lengthened one more time—this also required an act of Congress since it was now in a national park—to in September 1936. In May 2003 a section of the ditch breached about south of La Poudre Pass, causing the water to cascade down the slopes and into the Colorado River. The flood left a visible scar on the mountainside: 20,000 trees were downed and 47,600 cubic yards of debris ended up in the Lulu Creek and the headwaters of the

. The Water Supply and Storage Company reached a settlement to pay $9 million in damages to Rocky Mountain National Park. Periodic overflows of the ditch, of which the 2003 flood was but one example, has left debris all over the western side of the valley; the eastern side is not affected. The Grand River Ditch was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

on September 29, 1976. It can be hiked starting from the Bowen/Baker Trailhead in Rocky Mountain National Park.

References

External links

Historic American Engineering Record Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) responsible for administering the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American Engineering Record (HAER), and Historic American Landscapes ...

(HAER) documentation, filed under Grand Lake, Grand County, CO: ** ** ** **
Grand Ditch Breach Restoration Plan, Factsheet 2010
{{Colorado River system National Register of Historic Places in Rocky Mountain National Park Infrastructure completed in 1936 Water supply infrastructure on the National Register of Historic Places Buildings and structures in Grand County, Colorado Historic American Engineering Record in Colorado Interbasin transfer

History

See also

References

External links